In an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) network, a wireless mesh network can be employed to transmit communications between the back office system of a utility and the meters that are deployed at customers' premises. However, the topology of the wireless mesh network is unlikely to correspond to the topology of the utility's distribution network for delivering a commodity, such as electricity, water or gas, to its customers.
In one implementation for a power distribution network, the electric utility owns or contracts with power generation facilities, which produce the electricity that is initially carried to its customers over high voltage transmission lines. At substations, the voltage is stepped down and sent along distribution lines to transformers, which can be mounted, for example, on poles or in ground-level receptacles. From the transformers, the electricity travels along feeder lines to the individual customers' premises, to be supplied to the loads. At the premises, the amount of electricity that is consumed by the customer is measured with a meter.
The utility's AMI network may comprise communication nodes that are respectively associated with the meters. In one embodiment, the communication node can be a Network Interface Card (NIC) that is incorporated within the structure of the meter itself. The communication nodes employ RF signals to communicate with one another, and form a wireless mesh network. The nodes of this network also communicate with one or more access points that provide for ingress and egress of the information to and from the mesh network. The access points communicate with the back office system of the utility, for example by means of a wide area network. In situations where the meters are sufficiently spaced that their respective communication nodes may not be able to directly communicate with one another, or with an access point, additional communication nodes that function as relays can be interspersed within the area of the wireless mesh network.
In this implementation, the topology of the wireless AMI network may not coincide with that of the electric power distribution network. In particular, while communication nodes are located at the ultimate end points of the distribution network, namely the customers' premises, intermediate points in the distribution network, such as the substations and transformers, may not be associated with communication nodes. Consequently, it is not possible for the back office system to dynamically discover, confirm, and correlate conditions at these intermediate points by means of the wireless mesh network.
It is desirable to be able to monitor conditions at various points along the power network, and thereby intelligently manage the distribution of the electric power. For instance, monitoring parameters such as the temperature and current at the transformers provides an indication whether the load on the transformer is reaching a critical point that could lead to a failure. In such a case, commands can be sent to devices at the customers' premises to cause them to reduce the amount of power being drawn, and thereby diminish the load on the transformer before such a failure occurs.